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Canada5062 Posts
Some interesting news from Korea: after much anticipation, the Korean telecommunications giant SK Telecom, one of the bluest of blue chip companies in Asia, has officially announced that it will be taking over and sponsoring Boxer's 4U team. Financial details have not been released yet, but officials close to the deal did confirm that Boxer would be awarded the richest contract in professional gaming history. So much for Nal_rA's record!!
In fact, SKT has also made it clear that they intend to treat the rest of the 4U team in a manner consistent with the company's status as one of the largest, most valuable companies in Asia. Besides funding for players and manager salaries and day-to-day operating expenses, the sponsorship package includes a spacious 3550+ sq. feet team office/dormitory as well as an official team van that seats 12 (appropriately, a 2004 Chevrolet Starcraft - I'm not joking). It was reported that SKT is expected to invest several million dollars (US) in total per year on the sponsorship and operation of Boxer's team. That is some SERIOUS cash.
The news comes hot on the heels of KTF's (the second largest mobile telecommunications company in Korea after - you guessed it - SKT) recent shock announcement that it would be signing reigning OGN Starleague champion Nal_rA ("Kang Min") to its newly-minted team for a reported salary of US $100,000. KTF has been on a spending binge since it decided to put together its own pro team, easily outspending rivals to stock up on champion-caliber players like Reach(P), TheMarine(T), Chojja(Z), Sync(T) and, of course, the aforementioned Nal_rA(P). KTF's Daddy Warbucks tactics drew some heavy fire from hardcore fans of the game (and from opposing teams), many accusing it of trying to create a pro gaming version of Real Madrid.
Well, every Real Madrid deserves a Manchester United, and if anyone can outspend KTF, it's SKT (SKT took in revenues of US $8.2 billion in 2003 alone - some serious resource gathering macro!). Let the money war begin!
What's really interesting is that many in Korea see all this corporate sponsorship activity as an extension of the fierce business competition SKT and KTF have been engaged in for a share of Korea's enormous mobile telecom market. Some analysts predict it's only a matter of time before the third mega-member of the mobile telecom triumvirate in Korea, LG Telecom, joins the pro gaming sponsorship fray.
No big surprise now if that happens. I thought something was up when I found out OGN's next Starleague sponsor is going to be Gillette (see the Game Notes from my report on the Nal_rA vs Zeus OSL final for details). It's indicative of how mainstream SC/BW is in Korea that a company like Gillette, which has virtually nothing to do with the gaming industry, is still willing to throw over US $400,000 at sponsoring a gaming tournament.
Watch out Tiger Woods! SlayerS_BoxeR cometh!!
EDIT: The financial details have apparently been released. Boxer's one sexy, rich beast! Check it out here.
(Check out the original news source at Sports Chosun)
Members of the new royal family of professional gaming, Team 4U. From the left, iloveoov(T) (Choi Yeon-sung), Kos(T) (Kim Hyun-jin), SlayerS_BoxeR(T) (Im Yo-hwan), IntoTheRainbow(P) (Kim Sung-jae), ZergLee(Z) (Lee Chang-hoon), Kingdom(P) (Bak Yong-wook)
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Random thoughts:
Do they still have the same coach?
They're probably gonna have to practice a lot more...
SK is sick, Rainbow and Kos are their FOURTH and FIFTH best players.
SK the company is probably the second best overall company in Korea, after Samsung. They will probably run the team really, really well
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Canada5062 Posts
Yes - same coach (Joo Hoon). He's a sports psychologist by training, no less. The other teams don't stand a chance.
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Chojja(T) he's made the switch to terran already?
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Braavos36379 Posts
where does it say Chojja?
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Canada5062 Posts
I've just edited this in - the team van is a 2004 Chevrolet Starcraft. I shit you not.
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i was just thinking the other day that the best pros must have sports psychologists or at least they should
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MURICA15980 Posts
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MURICA15980 Posts
Oh, do I see some marketing potential for Chevy? :p
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Chevrolet Starcraft makes me giggly  in a good way
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 Real Madrid doesn't always win, so we shall see.
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On April 09 2004 00:20 mensrea wrote:
I've just edited this in - the team van is a 2004 Chevrolet Starcraft. I shit you not.
lol thats awesome
and you edited the T to Z right, i thought he had made the switch :O
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Pics of the Van? Does it look more like a vulture or a tank?
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OMG so COOL
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Canada5062 Posts
Something like this (tho the pic is of an older model):
Ignore the "StarShuttle." That's just the name of some company that custom converts vans. If you look closely at the side just to the front of the driver side door...
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MURICA15980 Posts
On April 09 2004 00:32 DoubleStormIII wrote: Real Madrid doesn't always win, so we shall see.
Real Madrid is KTF, Manchester United is 4U.
Speaking of which... some of these teams need new names. Because there's real team names such as 4U, Greatest Ones, DreamTeam, Pirites of Space, etc. They need to stop using just the sponsor names and have a secondary name as well as the sponsor name. I think the KTF guys are called the Magic N's or something, but it's never used.
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Yeah I remember walking home from school one day and pausing when I saw a van that read "starcraft" it looked like crap but I couldn't stop laughing at the idea.
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MURICA15980 Posts
And I'm surprised nobody mentioned anything about the BLUE letters that he used. 
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MURICA15980 Posts
On April 09 2004 00:48 DV8 wrote:
Yeah I remember walking home from school one day and pausing when I saw a van that read "starcraft" it looked like crap but I couldn't stop laughing at the idea.
Hah, yeah. I saw one at a red light once and I was like "woah!"
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there's probably less than 10 in all of korea
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They look shitty thoguh :/
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Canada5062 Posts
The new ones in Korea look very cool. All souped up. They're usually used to shuttle singers and actors. KTF has one for its team, as well.
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Canada5062 Posts
On April 09 2004 00:54 benzoic-acid wrote:
there's probably less than 10 in all of korea
More.
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Germany / USA16648 Posts
this car is going to own, omg
4U needs a second Zerg player? I'm just noticing this again...
thx mensrea for your news
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SK is really an awesome company....If i had to put money into any Korean company it'd be second on my list
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United States33481 Posts
who needs zerg when you have ILoveoov
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but boxer needs definitely a stronger zerg practise partner.
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On April 09 2004 04:06 Honk2000 wrote:
but boxer needs definitely a stronger zerg practise partner.
yeah and i could use a night with elle macphearson.
but boxer's tvz is good enough imo. he needs to train his tvt and tvp much more, and he has top class playing partners from oov and kingdom! hehe
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holy shit, this sounds like fun
the 4U-KTF games are not the battles of titans yay
but i agree with the flaw of not having a good zerg - reven if the team is equipped with great other players, a good zerg is somehow necessary in my mind
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I'm not from Korea. I've never been to Korea. I sort of know SC is big in Korea, but that's it. So, excuse my ignorance. But exactly HOW big is SC in Korea? I can't fathom that any company would get a return on this kind of investment for a game that is mostly followed by teenagers and people in their early 20's.
How often is SC on TV in Korea? Is it on "national" TV or on a cable channel? What kind of ratings does SC get in comparison to other sports or activities (what other sports are big in Korea?).
I mean, I've seen the SC bags of Doritos and SC pictures on backpacks and cans of Coke and stuff...but I really have no clue how big it is. I mean, you watch the OSL VOD's and apart from the finals, it looks like you have a few dozen, maybe 60-100 people watching. Didn't they used to broadcast from a mall or something? And even the OSL finals...do those people pay to watch? I thought they didn't...but if they do, how much? It just doesn't seem so huge to me to be able to support the kind of money being paid.
Some Korean person plz enlighten me.
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SK korea in big 4
1.samsung 2.hyundae 3.LG 4.sk 5.KT
posco,hanhwa,dongA,sinsege,CJ,dongbu,dongyang,Daewoo,hyosung,Kcc ....
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On April 09 2004 05:29 4.Aiur wrote:
I'm not from Korea. I've never been to Korea. I sort of know SC is big in Korea, but that's it. So, excuse my ignorance. But exactly HOW big is SC in Korea? I can't fathom that any company would get a return on this kind of investment for a game that is mostly followed by teenagers and people in their early 20's.
How often is SC on TV in Korea? Is it on "national" TV or on a cable channel? What kind of ratings does SC get in comparison to other sports or activities (what other sports are big in Korea?).
I mean, I've seen the SC bags of Doritos and SC pictures on backpacks and cans of Coke and stuff...but I really have no clue how big it is. I mean, you watch the OSL VOD's and apart from the finals, it looks like you have a few dozen, maybe 60-100 people watching. Didn't they used to broadcast from a mall or something? And even the OSL finals...do those people pay to watch? I thought they didn't...but if they do, how much? It just doesn't seem so huge to me to be able to support the kind of money being paid.
Some Korean person plz enlighten me.
I heard that about 500k was watching some ogn finals.
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MURICA15980 Posts
Well cell phones are a HUGE market in Korea, and teenagers and young adults are usually the biggest market for cell phones.
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On April 09 2004 08:37 Klogon wrote:
Well cell phones are a HUGE market in Korea, and teenagers and young adults are usually the biggest market for cell phones.
more like EVERYONE from age 15-60. Plus, all adults use cell phones and use them more than younger people
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Baltimore, USA22258 Posts
(SKT took in revenues of US $8.2 billion in 2003 alone - some serious resource gathering macro!).
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hoLy crap- thats a lot of money..
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Canada5062 Posts
On April 09 2004 05:29 4.Aiur wrote:
I'm not from Korea. I've never been to Korea. I sort of know SC is big in Korea, but that's it. So, excuse my ignorance. But exactly HOW big is SC in Korea? I can't fathom that any company would get a return on this kind of investment for a game that is mostly followed by teenagers and people in their early 20's.
How often is SC on TV in Korea? Is it on "national" TV or on a cable channel? What kind of ratings does SC get in comparison to other sports or activities (what other sports are big in Korea?).
I mean, I've seen the SC bags of Doritos and SC pictures on backpacks and cans of Coke and stuff...but I really have no clue how big it is. I mean, you watch the OSL VOD's and apart from the finals, it looks like you have a few dozen, maybe 60-100 people watching. Didn't they used to broadcast from a mall or something? And even the OSL finals...do those people pay to watch? I thought they didn't...but if they do, how much? It just doesn't seem so huge to me to be able to support the kind of money being paid.
Some Korean person plz enlighten me.
You are mostly correct in the information you've recited. I have not done research into exact TV ratings, so I cannot say for sure - and so I won't try hazarding a guess.
In a way tho, you're questions are moot. The companies that are sponsoring pro gaming teams these days are not run-of-the-mill, fly-by-night operations that are one interest rate hike away from bankruptcy. They are multi-billion dollar operations with serious money at stake. They also have some of the top business brains in the world working for them and rest assured if they've decided it's worth it to spend several million dollars a year sponsoring a pro gaming team, then it is. These are multinational corporations and they are not into charity.
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United States37500 Posts
So the team is still being called 4U?
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Canada5062 Posts
...as far as I know. This may, of course, change once the team starts playing with SKT logos all over their uniforms. I'd be surprised if they kept on the "4U" name in an official capacity. You would think SKT will come up with their own team name - one that's amenable to marketing imperatives.
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Good, 4U isn't the coolest name ever, I hope they'll come up with something more boxerish :O
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United States33481 Posts
Pro League Kick off soundly beat Pro basketball playoffs, OGN has been regularly beating the sports channels for a while.
still, the top 3 (anime, soaps, movies) cable channels are way far ahead of the rest, though OGN doing pretty well for a channel outside the big 3.
that's what I gather from articles
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On April 09 2004 05:29 4.Aiur wrote:
I'm not from Korea. I've never been to Korea. I sort of know SC is big in Korea, but that's it. So, excuse my ignorance. But exactly HOW big is SC in Korea? I can't fathom that any company would get a return on this kind of investment for a game that is mostly followed by teenagers and people in their early 20's.
How often is SC on TV in Korea? Is it on "national" TV or on a cable channel? What kind of ratings does SC get in comparison to other sports or activities (what other sports are big in Korea?).
I mean, I've seen the SC bags of Doritos and SC pictures on backpacks and cans of Coke and stuff...but I really have no clue how big it is. I mean, you watch the OSL VOD's and apart from the finals, it looks like you have a few dozen, maybe 60-100 people watching. Didn't they used to broadcast from a mall or something? And even the OSL finals...do those people pay to watch? I thought they didn't...but if they do, how much? It just doesn't seem so huge to me to be able to support the kind of money being paid.
Some Korean person plz enlighten me.
Ok... I'll tell you in my poor English. This is just my opinion.
It's true that SC is really big in Korea, but it's not a national sport yet. Still many people(I think more than a half of the population) don't know or don't understand SC leagues. There are 4 major TV channels (KBS1 KBS2 MBC SBS) and they have never broadcasted Starcraft match so far. Only CATV channels, usually OGN and MBCgame, hold and broadcast SC leagues. The percentage of CATV viewer is about 25% of Korean and there are 40+ other channels in CATV.
The people who are enthusiastic to SC are generally men, under age 25. They really enjoy playing it in Bnet or internet cafes, and watch SC leagues with TV or online. The number of SC league fans is A LOT but we don't say that SC is more popular than other major pro-sports such as baseball and soccer.
Whenever I watch SC match with TV, my father says "What the hell! How can a computer game be broadcasted!" (He is 54 and I'm 24 years old) Then I say "Father, that is really alike chess or Go. It's a sport!" But he answers "Well, I still don't understand you and your generation."
However, the popularity of SC leagues is still growing (See the increasing prize money of OGN starleague final). Especially young boys are crazy about it thanks to those two TV channels. Female fans are also increasing because of some sexy gamers like Yellow or Reach.
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On April 09 2004 12:18 Grandizer wrote:
(...) It's true that SC is really big in Korea, but it's not a national sport yet (...)
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MURICA15980 Posts
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Valhalla18444 Posts
They should paint their van black and put the word DROPSHIP on it
lmao how cheesy would that be? Imagine a StarCraft named Dropship rolling down the streets of korea.
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i love the real madrid comparision lol =D
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Isn't this kind of ruining the pro scene, I mean what about the under rated teams, i.e. SouL?
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You could say exactly the same about other sports (football + UEFA Champions League for example). The better/the more famous, the more money they get.
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Starcraft, those vans you are talking about is an actual company. I know because I used to live on a big lake and one day when I was just crusing around on the pedal boat I saw like 5 boats labeled ' Starcraft '
Some of the owners were out so I asked them about it and they said it's a company. This is in U.S. btw.
Chevy Starcraft on the other hand will be funny as hell. Think of what they'll do for standard options. Watch VODs in the car eh?
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MURICA15980 Posts
They aren't designing a new car for them... it's a car that's already out. -_-
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On April 09 2004 13:44 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Isn't this kind of ruining the pro scene, I mean what about the under rated teams, i.e. SouL?
They aren't under-rated. Soul is weak and that's why they lack sponsors really. Amazing players but they don't quite get that edge or get someone in the top 4, last two being Jju and Chojja to my knowledge. However, 4U and KTF play really well, and hence make the money. You play better, you get paid better.
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Thx mensrea for this info, im wondering how much money exactly is gonna get boxer for this :O
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China3334 Posts
On April 09 2004 02:28 Waxangel wrote:
who needs zerg when you have ILoveoov
time for Junwi's signing up
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United Kingdom10597 Posts
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On April 09 2004 16:12 SuperJongMan wrote: Show nested quote +On April 09 2004 13:44 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Isn't this kind of ruining the pro scene, I mean what about the under rated teams, i.e. SouL? They aren't under-rated. Soul is weak and that's why they lack sponsors really. Amazing players but they don't quite get that edge or get someone in the top 4, last two being Jju and Chojja to my knowledge. However, 4U and KTF play really well, and hence make the money. You play better, you get paid better.
I understand that, but I am sure OGN/MBC is gonna get PAID, for ads etc. Wtf is SouL gonna have?
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Chojja and Jju are skilled, but are not that popular and actually havent accomplished that much. Every high profile team has at least one bona fide superstar, and chojja is just on the borderline. Plus, nobody else on the team is very poular
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United Kingdom10597 Posts
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There is a lot about 15-20 miles from here that sells StarCraft vans.
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"every Real Madrid deserves a Manchester United" ... what a sexy sentence.....
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EPT![[image loading]](http://sports.chosun.com/news/entertainment/200404/20040409/44i17005_1.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.forestriverinc.com/starcraft/bus/images/starshuttle1.jpg)
